Characters
Many characters have katakana names that derive from German words.
Japanese
German
English
role
first appearance
フリーレン
Frieren
Freeze
main character
Ch 1 p 3
ヒンメル
Himmel
Sky or heaven
Frieren’s comrade
Ch 1 p 3
アイゼン
Eisen
Iron
Frieren’s comrade
Ch 1 p 3
ハイター
Heiter
Cheerful
Frieren’s comrade
Ch 1 p 3
フェルン
Fern
far away
new character
Ch 2 p 42
シュトラール
Strahl
sunlight
holy city
Ch 2 p 42
エーヴィヒ
Ewig
forever, eternal
historical character
Ch 2 p 47
ターク
Tag
day
region
Ch 3 p 78
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Wow this was night and day compared to the previous sections in terms of difficulty. There were some pages I could read fairly easily without looking things up!
p.79
Frieren says: 「冒険者なんてこんなものだよ。」
I understand the meaning, but I’m looking for more information about how「なんて」is functioning here. I found this reddit post that seems to describe what’s going on here, but wanted to double check as most sources use it to emphasize negative feelings.
p.81
The old lady says:
「本当に頼み事を聞いてもらってもいいのかしら？
私は薬草家だから教えられそうな魔法はないのだけれども」
I’m having trouble understanding what is being said here, particularly in the second part. Is is roughly Would you please listen to my request? Even though I’m an herbalist and I have no magic to teach you?
p.90
I love that they call those little squirrels シードラット
I think 害獣 translates better as pest? The vocab sheet has it translated as “harmful animal” which had me confused for a bit thinking Frieran was warning Fern that they might attack her, haha
I guess in trying to write this up I was able to figure out the meaning I was doubting myself because, to me, it would be odd to approach two strangers saying this. So I assumed I must have been missing something.
The first part seems especially indirect while the second part implies that the old lady knows that Frieran is searching for new spells. And on top of it, the old woman is facing away from Frieren and Fern in this panel. But, I suppose there’s a subtle line between “not understanding everything” and “world building”.
You can safely assume they’ve mentioned searching for new magic off-panel here. No use re-establishing it for the reader when the better part of the previous 3 pages have consisted of establishing Frieren and Fern go around doing odd jobs for weird magic.
I would break it down like this:
気がします
To have a feeling.
To have what kind of feeling?
[少し違うような]気がします。
In a way a bit different kind of feeling.
I would translate their dialog as something like:
Fern: So you like magic?
Frieren: Moderately, same as you.
Fern: I get the feeling that it’s a bit in a different way.
Frieren: It’s the same as you.
Not sure exactly what they are trying to tell us with that, maybe Frieren’s point is that Fern is also enjoying herself more than she says?
I think there’s more going on here, although I might be reading too much into it. For context, on the previous page Fern is talking about all the magic they’ve found so far:
Fern: We’ve only been collecting weird spells, haven’t we?
Frieren: Well, that’s because it’s my interest/hobby.
Fern: So, you really like magic, don’t you?
Frieren: Moderately, same as you.
So, Fern thinks that Frieren must like magic because she’s keen on collecting all kinds of spells, even ones that Fern herself doesn’t see any use in. And she thinks it’s must be because of curiosity and a love of magic. However, later this chapter, the bronze-polishing spell comes in useful. And I don’t think that’s a coincidence! It shows that Frieren might not be interested in magic per se, but she has the luxury of taking a long view and has learned that even ‘weird’ spells have a use. She’s not in love with magic, but sees it as a practical tool and in the long run even the most niche spell will come in handy.
There’s an element of that, and she does seek out and use niche spells for specific singular ideas she has (like the bronze statue cleaning you pointed out), but Frieren is absolutely all about finding the most random, weird, oddly specific, probably useless spells - that’ll become clearer as the story goes on. There’s an element of even seemingly pointless spells having a use, but the degree to which she seeks them out is more than just that. She’s obsessive about seeking out new magic - whether it’s scouring markets for magic items, doing odd jobs for whatever random dusty tomes people have lying around, or getting her head stuck in every mimic she comes across just in case there’s something magic in there. She finds a use for some of it… but then there’s the magic to turn red apples into green apples, the magic for perfectly flipped pancakes, and the magic to turn sweet grapes into sour grapes (which she very proudly demonstrates, much to the dismay of others). Even her favourite spell - the flower field magic - is pretty, certainly, and they found sort of a use for it, but to call it a practical tool is a bit much. The most use she gets out of many of these is getting a reaction out of other people - which is important to her, certainly, and the whole reason she likes the flower magic so much, but it’s not practical in the least.
She’s just either denying being a magic junkie real hard, or she’s trying to say Fern is the same as her and she doesn’t know it yet.
I interpreted this as that to Frieren this really is just a hobby, but to Fern they’ve just spent two years collecting weird magic and why would anyone spend so much time on something like that if they only moderately like it? But to Frieren this is no time at all.
Page 86
She’s so smug! I love her!
Page 89
Bottom left panel, 「この大陸での目撃例はもう何十年もないわ。」
I’ve got that the gist is “There hasn’t been one seen on this continent in decades.” but what’s with the での?
Also, I’m growing to love how weird stuff sounds when I translate it too literally. Witnessing example.
Page 91
So, Frieren can’t cast this magic without first seeing this flower. Which means they’re going to look for this extinct flower. Fern’s reactions “Seriously? (polite)” and “You mean decades ago” are very valid. She’s probably wondering how many years her and Frieren will spend in this forest just looking for one flower.
As far as I can tell, there are some squirrels eating from a bag of nuts next to Fern. At first I just thought Fern noticed them and was watching them. Then later Frieren asks what she’s hiding and sees the squirrels, which she calls seed rat vermin. (Did I get that right? )
Is the implication that Fern brought the squirrels from the forest and was hiding them from Frieren? Like, she wanted to keep them as pets?
And then they return them to the forest.
It’s quite whimsical. What are we supposed to take from this?
I don’t think she took them from the forest, she seems to suddenly notice them on page 89, but she does hide them away - presumably to keep as pets for a while, yes.
Story-wise what you’re mostly supposed to take from this is there’s these vermin called seed rats, and they eat seeds. But I guess it does also point to Fern being impulsive in her own way on occasion.
I was doubting myself because, to me, it would be odd to approach two strangers saying this. So I assumed I must have been missing something.
